Dawson City has been one of my favourite areas to explore, because if you enjoy the outdoors, fishing, hiking, hunting, exploring and history, there are fewer places with equal opportunity. History in Dawson started back in the gold rush, but unlike most boom and bust towns, the miners never completely abandoned this area. From the day gold was first discovered, miners have been traveling to this area in search of their riches. Even the great Jack London go his start, and his inspiration from the Klondike. I was fortunate last year to get out and spend some time on a gold mine, moving dirt and testing my Gold Fever. This year, I wanted to get deep into the gold fields and search for some relics of the past, and sure enough, we found them.
The gold dredge completely revolutionized gold mining, because prior to these mega machines, men were still using pics and shovels. Hardly an inch of land was left untouched in the Klondike after the dredges went through, but they weren’t the most efficient machines. Today many miners go back and work the old tailings left behind from the dredges, and some folks actually do quite well.
I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see some of these dredges before time and mother nature eliminate them forever, but still left in the valleys are dozens more still waiting to be discovered.
If you are aching for some more Dawson City content, you’re in luck. Here is my video last year from the gold mine: https://youtu.be/HprDLSiHq7I
And my video from the amazing Paddle Wheeler Graveyard: https://youtu.be/Vota-15uHVs
If you enjoyed this episode, and you would like to help support the show, please consider taking a look at the Patreon Page, and the Merchandise Site.
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25 Comments
8:10 It looks like a transformer that has been drained of cooling oil. If the cooling oil contains PCBs and was drained onto the ground then that area is highly contaminated. PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyl is a highly carcinogenic chemical compound, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001. PCBs were once widely used as heat transfer fluids, and as dielectric and coolant fluids for electrical equipment.
The most commonly observed health effects in people exposed to extremely high levels of PCBs are skin conditions, such as chloracne and rashes, but these were known to be symptoms of acute systemic poisoning dating back to 1922.
Those 3 barrel looking things look like to me pole-pigs (transformers like on the power poles outside your house/neighborhood). They would have a PCBs in them pre-1980s which is bad for humans and environment, newer ones have a safer more non-toxic oil in them, and of course dielectric.
One of these dredges is a federal park exhibit in Sumpter Oregon… Park and walk 50 feet and tour the entire dredge inside and out…….
It was great to see Dawson city again. My wife and I drove from San Diego and took top of the World Highway from Dawson city to Toke. It was our best trip ever.
Great time and adventure. Thank you
Thanks for sharing!
There is another dredge in Sumpter Valley, Oregon near Baker City
Where’s Tony Beets?!
Awesome sauce and smoked brisket Dustin!! This is what the oldtimers lived in and survived on!! What history and Determination!
It looks like the Methbillies have had a field day there!!
Look up song called. Captain of the dredger by the wurzles☺was going round in me head watching this lmao
many smaller belts. Larger contact area 🙂
Check out wiseman Alaska buddy!!!
While it's impressive what humans can do and want to do while cutting down ancient trees and leaving pollution in streams etc during the coarse of dredging mining, I think what's more amazing is how nature claims and absorbs everything into a pile of dust. There is I think a sort of poetic ending to the whole thing.Thanks for taking us there.
Brother I was browsing through YouTube, about 3 weeks ago, and instantly fell 4 the channel, and you have the most likeable personally, keep doing what you do, your amazing bro. O and you got me wanting a knarley Davidson, so I'm headed to the dealer lol
I'm playing catch up and I just am in awe of the innovation and the brilliance of making things with what they had. To think of all the guys who were hopeful of earning enough to feed their family that traveled those steps too. A very human experience of the past!
Transistors?!?!
08:21 It's a white porcelain insulator in the transformer.
Tony Beets is going to be all over this!
Thanks for taking us on the adventure 🙂 , History is amazing and sometimes the hardest thing is to not take something with you to remember it by cause memories can fade but preservation keeps things around for that next generation to awww at
Thank you for another interesting video. You're motivating me to make a trip to Alaska.
It's extremely refreshing to see a YouTube explorer who's not afraid to admit that they don't know what a particular piece of equipment is, rather than making a bogus statement based on a wild guess. This shows wisdom. Nobody knows everything about everything.
The three finned steel drums at the 8:00 mark are electrical transformers (like what you'd see up on a utility pole). Someone has removed the lids, drained the oil, and taken the copper windings out of them for scrap. The oil is nasty stuff, containing PCB's..
The overhead arms and linkages you pointed to at around 9:22 connected the control levers on the upper deck to the various winch clutches and brakes that you were standing next to. The large moving pieces of that dredge were manipulated with wire ropes pulled by those winches.
Thanks bro for taking us along on your adventures. I like the way you give us viewers the history of the place you are exploring. God bless
Love it!!! Love it!!! Love it!!! Just one thing,……how about a good pair of boots??? I just sit on edge when I see you in those shoes, going all over. Just a good solid investment….boots! Thanks for the great content!
A Can of old Danish Riberhus cookies in the Yukon. That's wicket🙂 it's a looking way for cookies to travel.
hmmmmm… good sandwich…. and the bird flu away… hahahaha……😂😂😂